From: Simon Spero <ses@tipper.oit.unc.edu>
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 02:04:26 +0800
To: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Subject: Re: Digicash will not fly (not)
In-Reply-To: <acb9bb9700021004f83d@[205.199.118.202]>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.951030121921.17834E-100000@tipper.oit.unc.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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One point worth noting is that the 5% cut used to be a typical fee for 
credit-card transactions. However, that cut only happened once per 
purchace, whereas digicash may incur this fee many more times. 

When I daydreamed about setting up a digicash issuer, I was thinking on 
the lines of a 2% fee for converting real money into digicash, then 
refunding any excess beyond cost of operations at the end of the year. 

Converting from real money to digicash is the most risky part of 
operations, so reserves should be proportional to this. Since my fantasy 
bank has a policy of not paying interest on digicash accounts, and 
keeping all assets in cash on (at worst) overnight deposit, this keeps 
things really safe. BTW, since I've got an aunt who lives in St. Brelade, 
the bank is in St Helier, Jersey, which has the great advantage of being 
one of the few Tax Havens to be able to get the Archers on FM.

Simon